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Aircraft


QUANTUM NAVIGATION SYSTEM AIMS TO COUNTER DEADLY GPS SPOOFING

By David Szondy
May 16, 2024
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Quantum navigation system aims to counter deadly GPS spoofing


A QuinetiQ RJ100 Airborne Technology Demonstrator was equipped with quantum
technologies designed to form part of a Quantum Inertial Navigation System
Crown Copyright
View 3 Images
1/3
A QuinetiQ RJ100 Airborne Technology Demonstrator was equipped with quantum
technologies designed to form part of a Quantum Inertial Navigation System
Crown Copyright
2/3
The new navigation system is based on quantum mechanics
Crown Copyright
3/3
Aboard the RJ100
Crown Copyright

View gallery - 3 images

Britain has scored a world-first with a series of test flights to demonstrate
the core technologies of a future quantum navigation system that's designed to
foil one of the most potentially dangerous, yet not very widely publicized,
threats that transportation faces: GPS jamming and spoofing.



Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have become so much a part of our lives with so
many applications that it's easy to take them for granted – that is, until you
drive into a steep mountain valley or densely wooded forest and completely lose
your satellite signal. That can be more than a little unnerving as the fuel
gauge hovers around empty and you have no idea where the next gas station is.

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It's even worse for ships and especially aircraft because they don't just face
the possibility of an accidental signal outage but active jamming and spoofing.
Jamming of GPS is identical to jamming radio or radar. It's simply a matter of
sending out a powerful transmission that can overwhelm and drown out the GPS
signal. On the other hand, spoofing is far more dangerous. This means sending
out false signals designed to fool a GPS device into thinking it's somewhere
else and traveling in the wrong direction.

This sounds like something out of a Bond thriller, but it's a very real and very
common threat. According to the European Business Aircraft Association, there
were 49,605 incidents of civilian aircraft being the victims of spoofing in 2022
alone – often as the result of flying in the vicinity of conflict zones where
spoofing is used to misdirect enemy warplanes and drones, though such incidents
can happen anywhere.


The new navigation system is based on quantum mechanics
Crown Copyright

Once spoofed, the crew members are distracted. They lose situational awareness.
They now have a much heavier workload as they cope with the emergency. The thing
to remember is that spoofing isn't just a matter of confusing an aircraft crew,
air traffic controllers who rely on the aircraft's transponder (which is now
wrong) could also be affected, and may be of little use when contacted for
confirmation of location.

Worse, the electronic flight bag that pilots depend on may be corrupted so the
crew can't trust its calculations of things like how much fuel is left. The
plane's course, speed, and altitude may be off too. The plane could even vanish
from automatic tracking sites, increasing the chances of a fatal accident. The
spoofing could also compromise takeoffs, as well as collision alarms and digital
compasses, while autopilots could disconnect themselves.



One way to combat this is to add backup navigation like an inertial guidance
system. This is essentially an electronic version of dead reckoning and is used
by submarines all over the world by switching to gyrocompasses and
accelerometers that automatically calculate the boat's course and position to
measure how it turns and accelerates along all three axes.

If you have a decent navigational fix to begin with, it's a very useful tool,
but it's limited because over time errors will creep into the system until they
accumulate and reinforce one another – which could result in the readout being
off by miles. This is why submarines have to periodically rise close to the
surface to get a fresh GPS position.

Aboard the RJ100
Crown Copyright

Since aircraft move much faster than submarines, these errors can build up much
faster. To get around this, British partners Infleqtion, BAE systems, QinetiQ,
and UK Research and Innovation are working on creating a new version of dead
reckoning using quantum mechanics.

Quantum navigation systems are based on what is called quantum sensing where,
under cryogenic conditions, the movements of a single atom are tracked precisely
by means of the peculiar properties of quantum mechanics, including quantum
entanglement, quantum interference, and quantum state squeezing. Combined with
atomic clocks and special software analysis to filter out interference, these
can stand in for GPS for a considerable time.

According to the British government, the hope is that the new quantum-based
Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems will be one part of a larger
system to protect commercial flights against spoofing. The recent tests
completed at the Ministry of Defence facility at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire
recently demonstrated two quantum technologies: a compact Tiqker optical atomic
clock and a tightly confined ultra-cold-atom-based quantum system. Both of these
were installed on QinetiQ’s RJ100 Airborne Technology Demonstrator aircraft that
has been fitted with a fighter plane nose. The PNT will eventually be integrated
into a complete Quantum Inertial Navigation System (Q-INS).



"From passenger flights to shipping, we all depend on navigation systems that
are accurate, safe and secure," said UK Science Minister, Andrew Griffith. "The
scientific research we are supporting here on quantum technology could well
provide the resilience to protect our interests. The fact that this technology
has flown for the first time in British skies, is further proof of the UK as one
of the world leaders on quantum."

Source: UK Government

View gallery - 3 images


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1 comment
David Szondy
David Szondy is a playwright, author and journalist based in Seattle,
Washington. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has a
background in the history of science, technology, and medicine with a particular
emphasis on aerospace, military, and cybernetic subjects. In addition, he is the
author of four award-winning plays, a novel, reviews, and a plethora of
scholarly works ranging from industrial archaeology to law. David has worked as
a feature writer for many international magazines and has been a feature writer
for New Atlas since 2011.


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1 comment
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published.
Brian M May 17, 2024 02:54 AM
Aircraft don't have to depend on GPs type systems, beside inertial navigation
systems they can also use VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range
Station) which was one of the standard ways to navigate before GPS.

There is also the argument that we need a terrestrial based back up radio
navigations system such as Loran, not just as an alternative to readily jammed
GPS systems by bad actors, but to protect from natural actions such as solar
flares. Loran can be used by everyone, aircraft, ships etc.
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